Page 40 of Driving Him Wild

leave it be. For now. ‘You’ve got your satellite phone. That’s enough to stay connected for the time being, right?’

Her gaze lingered on my face. ‘I like to be fully present in every situation. Phones are one thing, face to face is quite another.’

Yep, we were definitely talking about something other than her business. Something that charged

the blood in my veins triggered feral hunger inside me. My cock hardened. ‘I get that.’

‘Do you?’

My throat dried, words taking a little while to form in my brain before I replied. ‘That you like

being in control. Relish being in charge? Yes, I do. Am I wrong?’ Fuck, I hoped I wasn’t. Being taken for a fool by Stephanie was one thing. Getting it wrongtwice...

‘You really want to know the answer to that?’

I shifted as the ground beneath my feet lurched. We were straying into forbidden territory, slipping beneath the roped-off cordon and into space I’d designated off-limits since that last, soul-wrecking showdown with Stephanie. Where she’d admitted the depth of her duplicity. Admitted,finally, her interest in me had been mere facility, that I—and my celebrity—was a stepping stone to the bigger

pool of clients she’d wished to cultivate. That she’d onlypandered to my proclivitiesbecause she thought I’d grow out of it eventually.

I wanted to set my cup down, walk away from this subtexted conversation before it got any more

dangerous. Before Graciela’s sizzling gaze compelled me to disregard every reason why this was a

bad idea.

‘What if I said yes, Jensen? What if I told you that being in control is everything I live for? That I’m the Domme your senses are screaming at you that I am?’ she stated, her voice deep, firm. Totally

controlled.

My stomach went into free fall, my heart hammering a wild, feral beat as we stared at one another.

End this now.Don’t risk another Stephanie episode when you know how it’ll end.

What if I was leaving myself open to a new, untested form of hell?

But even as the warning shrieked inside my head, I knew this wouldn’t be like that. For one thing,

this would be temporary.

I was looking at hours, maybe a day with Graciela, rather than the months Stephanie had wormed

her duplicitous way into my life.

Everything with Graciela Mortimer was already on a countdown clock controlled by the weather. It

would end and we’d go our separate ways. So why not indulge in whatever open-ended proposition

blazed in her eyes? Experience an epic adventure right here in my cabin?

And if it turned out not to be as epic... I mentally shrugged. I couldn’t be more disappointed than I’d been in the last few years.

But if it was...

If she was offering me another chance to fulfil the deep craving, a chance to be rid of this hard-on threatening to cut me in half, no fucking way in hell was I to deny it. I swallowed another mouthful of coffee to buy myself some time; unable to deny the clamouring in my blood, I answered. ‘Prove it.’

The words fell from my lips before I could stop them. ‘If you are who you say you are, prove it to

me.’

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